SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 18, 1891. 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF ARCHEOLOGY. 



One evening early in November, 1889, a company of gen- 

 tlemen gathered in one of the rooms of the Philadelphia 

 Club, where an elegant dinner was spread. At the head of 

 the table sat Dr. William Pepper, provost of the University 

 of Pennsylvania, and on his right Dr. C. C. Abbot. F. C. 

 Macauley, Esq., sat at the foot of the table, and along the 

 sides were men so distinguished for scientific attainments and 

 public spirit as Professor Edward Cope, Dr. Daniel G. Brin- 

 ton. Dr. Horace Jayne, the late Dr. Joseph Leidy, and two 

 or three others, — nearly all of them oflBcially connected 

 with the University of Pennsylvania. This institution is 

 not heard of so often in New York and New England as are 

 Columbia, Harvard, and Yale, with all of which, neverthe- 

 less, it stands abreast in most particulars. Its library, for 

 example, is one-third larger than that at Harvard. 



Up to the date of this merry little feast, which is recalled 

 on account of its results, the University of Pennsylvania had 

 lacked anything to compare with such museums as exist at 

 New Haven and Cambridge, and which not only offer local 

 students of the sciences great facilities, but become centres 

 of original research and asylums for the preservation of 

 valuable material. Thus far in the revival of enthusiasm, 

 which during the past few years has been stirring the alumni 

 and friends of the university, this feature had been neglected ; 

 but after the edibles and a part of the potables above-men- 

 tioned had disappeared, it was disclosed that these gentle- 

 men had met and dined merely as a pleasant prelude to the 

 discussion of the ways and means of organizing an archaeo- 

 logical department and collection in connection with their 

 university. 



Dr. Leidy took the chair, the group (excepting Dr. Abbott, 

 to whom these proceedings were all a surprise) resolved it- 

 self into a " commission," and in fifteen minutes, promptly 

 and picturesquely, The American Museum of Archaeology 

 was in existence. 



In the course of the discussion Dr. Abbott was introduced 

 by Dr. Pepper in a speech which reminded his hearers, that, 

 though Dr. Abbott composed books, and had even perpe- 

 trated a sonnet now and then, it was not as a poet he was 

 ambitious to shine; that in spite of the fact that he had writ- 

 ten the most charming and suggestive books of out-door lore 

 published in America, this work and the attached credit were 

 not foremost in the author's thoughts. Dr. Abbott's chief 

 interest had been from tlie first in the investigation of the 

 habits, conditions, social advancement, and mental attitude 

 of the American aborigines; and to him science was in- 

 debted for valuable contributions in the direction both of 

 materials and of philosophy; while the light which Dr. Ab- 

 bott had been able to throw upon the antiquity of man in 

 the eastern part of this continent, by his discovery of the 

 stone implements and other traces of paleolithic man in the 

 glacial-drift gravels of the Delaware Valley, had established 

 beyond any reasonable doubt that practically primitive men 



had dwelt on these shores during, and prior to, the great 

 glaciation of the northern half of the continent. He asked 

 Dr. Abbott to say what disposition had been made of (he 

 great quantities of relics of prehistoric man which he had 

 gathered, and whether the field was exhausted. 



Dr. Abbott replied in a speech of some length. He said 

 that his farm near Trenton, N.J., occupied a knoll overlook- 

 ing wide meadows along the Delaware, which traditionally 

 and evidently had been a favorite resort for the Delaware 

 Indians and for their predecessors. From the ploughed fields 

 and river-banks of this immediate neighborhood he had 

 gathered some 30,000 relics, in stone, bone, and clay, of the 

 aborigines, who had hunted, fished, camped, and manufac- 

 tured their implements and utensils there. The earlier part 

 of this collection had gone mainly to the Academy of Sci- 

 ence at Salem, Mass., and to prominent European archaeolo- 

 gists, but since the founding of the Peabody Museum of 

 American Archeology and Ethnology at Cambridge, Mass., 

 everything had been deposited there, where it constitutes the 

 Abbott Collection, embracing 27,000 pieces. This includes 

 the series of paleolithic (drift-gravel) implements and bones. 

 The literary outcome had been many pamphlets and articles, 

 and the book "Primitive Industry," which had summarized 

 the results up to 1881. A new edition of this book is now 

 under way, wherein later investigations will be noted. 



The audience was surprised at the magnitude of what one 

 man, with greatly limited means, had been able to accom- 

 plish, and regretted that this extremely interesting and val- 

 uable material had been taken to a distant museum out of 

 territory which by right was local and belonged to Philadel- 

 phia, simply because that city had been too apathetic to ob- 

 tain and preserve it. 



Responding to a further request for advice. Dr. Abbott ex- 

 plained that systematic searching would bring to light a vast 

 ' quantity more of the same kind of relics in the Delaware 

 Valley, and probably largely extend our present knowledge 

 of the prehistoric inhabitants of that region. He said that 

 large areas of the United States were still unexplored archaeo- 

 logically; that there was abundant room for another organ- 

 ization without duplicating the labors of existing investiga- 

 tors; and that it was of the highest importance that such 

 work should be done at once. 



The result was the formation of an Archaeological Asso- 

 ciation under the auspices of the university, the assignment 

 of quarters for the storage and arrangement of materials, 

 and the appointment of Dr. Abbott as curator. Subscrip- 

 tions were immediately forthcoming for the present needs of 

 the department, and a vigorous and organized effort is be- 

 ginning for the accumulation of specimens and information, 

 not only, but for the financial endowment necessary to the 

 maintenance of the museum and the attendant instruction 

 and publication of results. Dr. Abbott has consequently 

 severed his official connection with the trustees of the Pea- 

 body Museum (who cordially wished him good-speed) and 

 is devoting his energy to the work in this new field. About 

 25,000 specimens have already been received, and many more 

 are promised as gifts, while the purchase of some small but 

 valuable collections is under way. It is the policy of the 



